Meat-substitute manufacturer The Better Meat Co. was awarded a $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Distributed Bioindustrial Manufacturing Program.
The West Sacramento-based company will use the grant money toward expanding production of its sustainable and nutritious mycoprotein food product.
“These grants are meant to scale up domestic bio-industrial manufacturing,” said Better Meat Co. CEO Paul Shapiro. “This will certainly help to scale up."
The grant money will be used for engineering and design work for a future larger manufacturing operation, he said. Building the actual larger-scale operation will cost tens of millions of dollars.
Under the grant program, the company submitted a budget for design and engineering, and as it hits milestones, it will apply for reimbursement through the program. One of the benefits of the grant is that it is non-dilutive to the company's balance sheet.
Better Meat developed methods and processes for making its patented Rhiza mycoprotein, which is made from mycelium, the root-like structure of fungus.
The Rhiza product is an all-natural, shelf-stable protein source for use in a wide variety of food applications, including sustainable substitutes that can mimic the texture of fish, chicken, pork and beef.
At its pilot plant, Better Meat makes its mycelium product in a 9,000-liter fermentation vessel. It can run the production nearly continuously.
The 2018 startup sells all the Rhiza it can make, Shapiro said.
With its pea protein, Better Meat is a business-to-business supplier to branded product makers, including Hormel Foods Corp. (NYSE: HRL) and Perdue Farms. The Better Meat Co.’s vegetable blend is in Perdue's Chicken Plus formulations for frozen tenders and nuggets.
Asked if the DOD grant will help in procuring more outside funding for an expansion, Shapiro said “we hope that everything we do helps.”
Better Meat Co. recently received a determination letter from Food and Drug Administration that its Rhiza mycoprotein is Generally Recognized as Safe.
“The United States will be greatly advantaged by taking a leadership role in biomanufacturing, especially when it comes to efficient, innovative methods of food production,” Shapiro said.
